Gated communities

Restless Soul

I'm just watching a show right now about these "gated communities" in the US, where lots of rich white folks are feeling the cities and choosing to live behind bars as it were.

Do any of you guys live in one and why? Why did you move there? Do you actually feel safe within one?

To me it sounds wierd and not appealing in the slightest personally. For the price of "peace and safety" there's a ton of rules to live by. It's like living in a 1950s small town or a geriatric community! But there's nothing for teenagers and poor working class people are frowned upon! (never mind any ethnic minorities!)

Anyway what is your view of these gated communities? One of the people interviewed was asked "what about the outside world?" to which he replied, "Who the hell cares, its in here that matters!" Is this the future of american society?

hippiemom

Restless Soul wrote:

I'm just watching a show right now about these "gated communities" in the US, where lots of rich white folks are feeling the cities and choosing to live behind bars as it were.

Do any of you guys live in one and why? Why did you move there? Do you actually feel safe within one?

To me it sounds wierd and not appealing in the slightest personally. For the price of "peace and safety" there's a ton of rules to live by. It's like living in a 1950s small town or a geriatric community! But there's nothing for teenagers and poor working class people are frowned upon!

Anyway what is your view of these gated communities? One of the people interviewed was asked "what about the outside world?" to which he replied, "Who the hell cares, its in here that matters!" Is this the future of american society?

I certainly hope not. I've been to a few, and they're awful. Some of the regulations can be ridiculous, down to what flowers you can plant in your yard. They absolutely reek of conformity. The really depressing thing is that they look like movie sets ... everything is picture perfect, but there's no sign that anyone actually lives there. I always find myself with an urge to run around the neighborhood opening garage doors, spreading hoses across lawns, leaving tricycles sitting in driveways, putting child-made construction paper creations in the windows, and cranking up some music somewhere. I find the sterile atmosphere to be depressing.

Jeanwah

Perfection. That's probably what people who live in gated communities want, and they get it there. Everything in gated communities look so perfect, it's eerie. That, and they're probably paranoid about their personal security.

surferdude

hippiemom wrote:

Some of the regulations can be ridiculous,...

Are you talking about NYC's banning of trans-fat or something else?

mammasan

There is one a few towns over from where I live. It looks nice but yoe are living ontop of the person next to you. There is no space, no yards. I couldn't live in a place like that.

Ahnimus

That reminds me of a really weird dream, or at least I think it was a dream. It could have been a movie. It was like a gated community, but it was really just a mansion with a gate around it. I was a child being held captive and abused along with dozens of other children. If someone tried to escape they would throw the child into a pit of rabid wolves and would be torn to shreds.

I eventually escaped with a young girl, I think she was supposed to be my sister or something. We contacted the authorities but nothing could be done to stop them. I hoped to have the dream again so I could rescue all the children. Pretty fucked up, but it was just a dream.

norm

hippiemom wrote:

I certainly hope not. I've been to a few, and they're awful. Some of the regulations can be ridiculous, down to what flowers you can plant in your yard. They absolutely reek of conformity. The really depressing thing is that they look like movie sets ... everything is picture perfect, but there's no sign that anyone actually lives there. I always find myself with an urge to run around the neighborhood opening garage doors, spreading hoses across lawns, leaving tricycles sitting in driveways, putting child-made construction paper creations in the windows, and cranking up some music somewhere. I find the sterile atmosphere to be depressing.

You crack me up!:D

The gated community is only as good as it's homeowners association. And every HOA sucks because invariably there are run by nosy, annoying people who love the power rush. Case in point
http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=224399&highlight=denver

catefrances

Ahnimus wrote:

That reminds me of a really weird dream, or at least I think it was a dream. It could have been a movie. It was like a gated community, but it was really just a mansion with a gate around it. I was a child being held captive and abused along with dozens of other children. If someone tried to escape they would throw the child into a pit of rabid wolves and would be torn to shreds.

I eventually escaped with a young girl, I think she was supposed to be my sister or something. We contacted the authorities but nothing could be done to stop them. I hoped to have the dream again so I could rescue all the children. Pretty fucked up, but it was just a dream.

the little girl was you ahnimus. she is your conscience and the saving you will be doing will be of yourself. the gated community is your life or maybe our society. that's what the dream is about.

mammasan

catefrances wrote:

the little girl was you ahnimus. she is your conscience and the saving you will be doing will be of yourself. the gated community is your life or maybe our society. that's what the dream is about.

Holy Freud, Batman. That was pretty deep.

Restless Soul

Apparently Canyon Lake is supposed to be the safest gated community around but crime had risen within it and rapes have doubled!

catefrances

mammasan wrote:

Holy Freud, Batman. That was pretty deep.

i have my moments.

mammasan

catefrances wrote:

i have my moments.

Well that must have been a good moment.

Ahnimus

catefrances wrote:

the little girl was you ahnimus. she is your conscience and the saving you will be doing will be of yourself. the gated community is your life or maybe our society. that's what the dream is about.

I don't think so, I was viewing it from the perspective of someone trying to get out alongside the girl. It was pretty weird because all the kids were in these tiny little rooms with really small doors about 2 feet high. I must have been an older kid, I ducked into one of the rooms and saw a little boy just staring blankly at the wall. He didn't even flinch when I entered. It was pretty twisted. This was while I was reading that developmental psychology book though.

catefrances

Ahnimus wrote:

I don't think so, I was viewing it from the perspective of someone trying to get out alongside the girl. It was pretty weird because all the kids were in these tiny little rooms with really small doors about 2 feet high. I must have been an older kid, I ducked into one of the rooms and saw a little boy just staring blankly at the wall. He didn't even flinch when I entered. It was pretty twisted. This was while I was reading that developmental psychology book though.

still fits ahnimus.
the fact the rooms were so small is indicative of how suffocating society is and how crushing conventionality is. the way out may be small but you do get out to be confronted by this small boy staring blankly at the wall. which means you are unsure of what to do with your new found freedom. you can't quite cut that final string.

mammasan

catefrances wrote:

still fits ahnimus.
the fact the rooms were so small is indicative of how suffocating society is and how crushing conventionality is. the way out may be small but you do get out to be confronted by this small boy staring blankly at the wall. which means you are unsure of what to do with your new found freedom. you can't quite cut that final string.

Are you a psychiotrist or therapist.

catefrances

mammasan wrote:

Are you a psychiotrist or therapist.

no. i'm just full of shit.

mammasan

catefrances wrote:

no. i'm just full of shit.

Well that's some good shit.

redrock

catefrances wrote:

no. i'm just full of shit.

muaaaahahahaha.... almost wet myself there! :D:D

Ahnimus

catefrances wrote:

still fits ahnimus.
the fact the rooms were so small is indicative of how suffocating society is and how crushing conventionality is. the way out may be small but you do get out to be confronted by this small boy staring blankly at the wall. which means you are unsure of what to do with your new found freedom. you can't quite cut that final string.[/quote

You may be right, but I think it has more to do with my concern for young children.

FinsburyParkCarrots

Restless Soul wrote:

I'm just watching a show right now about these "gated communities" in the US, where lots of rich white folks are feeling the cities and choosing to live behind bars as it were.

Do any of you guys live in one and why? Why did you move there? Do you actually feel safe within one?

To me it sounds wierd and not appealing in the slightest personally. For the price of "peace and safety" there's a ton of rules to live by. It's like living in a 1950s small town or a geriatric community! But there's nothing for teenagers and poor working class people are frowned upon! (never mind any ethnic minorities!)

Anyway what is your view of these gated communities? One of the people interviewed was asked "what about the outside world?" to which he replied, "Who the hell cares, its in here that matters!" Is this the future of american society?

There's one around the corner. Occasionally people emerge, in local pubs, very palefaced and shaken. I think they're looking for new recruits, for their swinger orgies, but once you get locked in, you're locked forever ... they stay alone together, and as sad as damp twiglets on the lemonade-splashed ashtray of despair.

MrBrian

something you'll notice about the gates "protecting" these communities, the code most often is a basic "1234", i'm serious, try it out.

Nothing really safe about them, they just make people think they can't get hurt.

fanch75

Of course, the show put the most callous asshole as an example of a resident.

But anyway, I'm not sure why anyone here cares where someone else they don't know chooses to live. And no, I don't live in a gated community.

Skitch Patterson

i think this thread may have been more accurate 15-20 years ago... I think in many circumstances and metro areas you're seeing more people (especially the rich white folk) moving back into the cities, for luxury urban apartments and condos... and away from the 50's style suburban communities.

hippiemom

Skitch Patterson wrote:

i think this thread may have been more accurate 15-20 years ago... I think in many circumstances and metro areas you're seeing more people (especially the rich white folk) moving back into the cities, for luxury urban apartments and condos... and away from the 50's style suburban communities.

Oh no, these places are all over, and they're way beyond 50's style suburbs. A woman at work had to rip out half of her garden last year because her flowers and shrubs weren't on the "approved" list. Sometimes people are surprised when they find out exactly what they've gotten themselves into, as far as regulations go. They think it just means they have to keep up their property, then they're shocked when angry neighbors show up demanding that they re-paint their front door in a "proper" color, or take down their new awnings because stripes aren't allowed. I'm amazed that people will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a house without reading the fine print, but it happens.

I'd never live in one because a) I think they're creepy, and b) all the houses look so much alike, I'm sure I'd come home drunk one night and get myself arrested for walking into the wrong one.

Skitch Patterson

hippiemom wrote:

Oh no, these places are all over, and they're way beyond 50's style suburbs. A woman at work had to rip out half of her garden last year because her flowers and shrubs weren't on the "approved" list. Sometimes people are surprised when they find out exactly what they've gotten themselves into, as far as regulations go. They think it just means they have to keep up their property, then they're shocked when angry neighbors show up demanding that they re-paint their front door in a "proper" color, or take down their new awnings because stripes aren't allowed. I'm amazed that people will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a house without reading the fine print, but it happens.

I'd never live in one because a) I think they're creepy, and b) all the houses look so much alike, I'm sure I'd come home drunk one night and get myself arrested for walking into the wrong one.

Oh, i know they are still out there, and they are getting out of control with the regulations... But most of what i have heard in recent years is that the in thing for rich white folks is to live in Million Dollar apartments in the middle of cities... not gated communities.

Thata all i was saying.

cornnifer

As teenagers, my friends and i used to sneak in and tear down their basketball rims. good times.

Restless Soul

Near the end of the show they showed some young people talking and they were really open with their racism towards blacks and mexicans. A couple of them were saying they were happy to live in the gated community because it was for "white survival" or something lol. Like they are an endangered species or something! lol. That mentality says it all really!

This was the programme btw: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/united-gates.shtml

musicismylife78

i think they are sick. You end up building walls, as opposed to breaking them down. You mean, rich white trustfundians are so worried about brown people that they build walls to keep them out? I mean its just so absurd. I think all rich whities should be forced to spend a day in the projects, and see what life is really like for people. While they are oppressing the poor and sending youth off to die in Iraq, the poor and brown are actually fighting the war and are being brutally slaughtered by inhumane pigs out for blood.

I find it funny rich whites feel they have to seperate from society, like us poor people are too horrific to even live next to.

Gated communities are inherently racist. Its always the rich who can afford to move away from poor neighborhoods, this depleting the wealth of their former neighborhood. I would say gentrification, and white flight are 2 examples of huge problems in society.

I agree with the great Zack De La Rocha in Down Rodeo, talking about how people there havent seen a brown skin man since their grandparents bought one.

Gated communities breed racism, hatred, fear of the "other", gentrification, xenophobia, inequality.

Basically they are evil incarnate. I say while they build there communities, we should tear the walls down, and tear the gates down.

Until we control some stuff, until the poor, until workers control the system, they wont build their crap, thats how I see it.

You want to build a mansion? Fine, but be willing to send your kid off to Iraq and be willing to give away your money.

musicismylife78

i always love how ignorant people say "the blacks are poor" or "the blacks are all criminals" or "they are only killing themselves". Simple thought tells us that the reason the inner city is depleted and poor is because rich whities leave the city and move elsewhere. Instead of pointing the finger at blacks and minorities, the pigs should instead be pointing it at themselves.

musicismylife78

to the poster who said, this thread is outdated, that makes no sense. If I was a wealthy white male, who could choose to live in the Hamptons or in South Central LA or a poor neighborhood in chicago, its not too hard to figure out where I would live. Rich whites have always left poor minorities to dwell in hells that whites themselves tacitly support and allow to happen. After all it makes no sense, if you are white, why not move somewhere all white, because you compete only with whites for jobs. Whereas if you move to a poor multicultural neighborhood, you are "getting your job stolen" by other races.

This thread is outdated when people no longer move out of poor black neighborhoods because they are white. This thread is outdated when the hamptons no longer exists.

Restless Soul

Cheguevara6 wrote:

to the poster who said, this thread is outdated, that makes no sense. If I was a wealthy white male, who could choose to live in the Hamptons or in South Central LA or a poor neighborhood in chicago, its not too hard to figure out where I would live. Rich whites have always left poor minorities to dwell in hells that whites themselves tacitly support and allow to happen. After all it makes no sense, if you are white, why not move somewhere all white, because you compete only with whites for jobs. Whereas if you move to a poor multicultural neighborhood, you are "getting your job stolen" by other races.

This thread is outdated when people no longer move out of poor black neighborhoods because they are white. This thread is outdated when the hamptons no longer exists.

I agree they are inherently racist - the whole concept is based on racism and exclusiveness and a hankering for a past without blacks that never existed except in movies. The funny thing was those racist kids were acting like black kids in the way they spoke etc, which was hilarious.